Photoshop Tricks, Part 2 - Adding Elements to the Composition

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Let's take care of creating the moon and the shadow for the vase within one set of steps. Why? Because these features are not challenging, and as you will see, they don't take that many steps.

Here's how to finish the Gaugin-type image:

Adding Finishing Touches to a Sunset Scene

1. With the vase layer as the active layer, press Ctrl(Command)+J to duplicate this layer. Press Ctrl(Command)+[ (left bracket key) to move the vase copy layer below the vase layer.

2. Press Alt(Opt)+Shift+Delete (Backspace) to fill the shape on the vase copy layer with the foreground color. You can see on the Layers palette thumbnail that you now have a deep blue vase-shape on the vase copy layer.

3. Press Ctrl(Command)+T to put the blue shadow in Free Transform mode. First, hold the Shift key to constrain the rotation to 15-degree increments. Then take hold of a corner on the Free Transform bounding box, and rotate the shadow by 90 degrees. If you cannot get ahold of the bounding box handle with a bent arrow cursor, right-click (Macintosh: hold Ctrl and click) and choose Rotate 90° CCW from the Context menu, or type –90° in the Rotate box on the Options bar.

4. After the shadow has been rotated, drag the top-center handle downward, and then drag the left-center handle to the left so the shadow is thin and long.

5. Place the cursor in the center of the Transform box, and then drag to reposition the shadow so that its base is under the vase. When you're satisfied with the effect, press Enter (Return) to accept the transformations (see Figure 24.53). As a finishing touch on the shadow, use the Lasso tool to lasso some of the areas showing past the vase's base, and press the Delete (Backspace) key to remove the unwanted parts of the shadow. Press Ctrl(Command)+D to deselect.
   
   

Figure 24.53 The vase shadow is a nice touch and adds geometry to the image.

6. Now, the moon. In the sky to the right of the image, use the Elliptical Marquee tool while holding Shift to make a perfect circle. Click the Quick Mask mode icon (or press Q), and the selection becomes a red circle.

7. Choose Filter, Distort, Glass. As you can see in Figure 24.54, a moderate Glass distortion setting makes a van Gogh–like "Starry Night" moon. By the way, Gaugin and van Gogh were both Impressionists, but Gaugin was also a Post Impressionist.

Figure 24.54 The Glass distortion filter creates shards out of the edges of a smooth object.

8. Click on OK to apply the filter, and then press Q to exit Quick Mask mode, or click the Edit in Standard Mode icon on the toolbox to make the Quick Mask into a selection marquee. Press Ctrl(Command)+Shift+N to create a new layer, and name this layer moon. Click on OK.

9. To be true to Impressionism, we need an odd color for the moon to create moodiness in the image. Click on the foreground color, choose R:177, G:205, B:123 in the Color Picker dialog box, and click on OK. With the Brush tool and a 65-pixel soft round brush (Mode set to Normal, and Opacity and Flow set to 100%), paint over the selection marquee. Press Ctrl(Command)+D to deselect when you're satisfied.

10. You're done! Press Ctrl(Command)+S.

That was a walk in the park, wasn't it?

This chapter is from Inside Photoshop CS, by Gary Bouton (Sams, 2004, ISBN: 0672326442). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now.

Next: Trick 9: Coping with a Horrific Photo >>
 

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